Thursday 7 January 2010

Dat Assassination attempt. and why I hate Hordes

So between bouts of Bayonetta I managed to get some games in yesterday against Lofty. I felt like a jerk when I ganked him turn 2 with Kaelyssa, but hey it's a lesson all newbies must experience at some point, we all walked into it at some stage. So instead of ranting how awesome Bayonetta is (although at the end the cut scenes are a BIT excessive and need more crotch shots) I decided I would rant about Hordes and while I'm selling my Skorne stuff.

I need to point out I'm not a complete idiot (although some will disagree), but I find the fury mechanic is too complex for me to enjoy using. Now here is the thing, it's not that the system is complex but it's the options it gives you make the game slow to a crawl when you're a person like me. I look at the situation and consider every option I see for maybe 5-10 seconds then move onto the next, in Warmachine I have my limit of focus and as such I think my options through at the start of the turn/my opponent's turn and then I put it into action. Where as with Hordes every time I boost or use fury in any manner my situation has then changed and become a new set of options, which a control freak like me then has to take a minute or two considering. So lets take a scenario and play with it.

We'll have a generic Warlock and a heavy and a light example here.

I charge a Heavy beast in, I spend 2 fury on attacks and I'm left with 1 open. Now I have to spend a minute debating if I want to leave the heavy open for transfers and use the light to finish the enemy model, or do I want to use the light else where or even move it to a better position and let my heavy get hit a little? All those options come from a single charge and then whatever I decide I must then do something with my Warlock to get the fury off, which takes a couple of seconds to decide too.

Now when you spread this over even a battlebox game, the fury mechanic is not enjoyable to me. As a control freak who must consider everything giving me too many options doesn't make it harder (I can do it), but it makes it frustrating because I feel like an asshole because I'm spending so long thinking, but if I don't then I'd feel like an asshole for not playing my best.

I think focus also fits my balls to the wall style, with fury if I want something done I can always play around with fury and get it done, which leaves the risks a little more managable, and as such I'm less likely to take the big risks I pride myself on taking. If I'm completely in a corner than I will find a way out of it with focus, with fury I'm more likely to just go "HULK SMASH!" and miss chances. As I played Lofty yesterday I noticed this, I left Mordikar wide open because I was losing the attrition war and instead of trying to beat Stryker (I had a chance to Essence blast the Canoneer and Cyclops Savage right on top of him), I fell back on trying to beat an Ironclad with a very hurt Canoneer. I had so many options that instead of taking the risky one that could win me the game (as I should have) I tried to play it safe and let the fury mechanic pull me back into the game instead. I should point out that Lofty is new and I could of gotten away with it IF I hadn't of pointed out to Lofty his 'clad had Mordikar dead if he just walked over to him, but I feel like I'd rather be punished for screwing up than beating a new player due to his inexperience, plus it helped Lofty learn to look at the game a bit differently.

I love the ability to transfer, but I find fury just gives me too many options and due to my nature it slows the game to a crawl. So with this in mind I'm going to... dun dun dun, sell my Hordes stuff. I really have no interest in playing Skorne at this point and after thinking through the fury slow down I think I would rather put that money into Retribution. Yesterday I picked up a box of Sentinels, Nayl and another soulless for about 35% off from the closing store, so I now have everything I want except for a UA and a couple more heavies. Looking at Ebay right now it seems a lot of people are selling Warmachine stuff and I don't think models are earning their value. So I think I'm going to paint up an army to a really high quality and sell it when the final pdf is released. I'm looking at Mordikar, Molik Kahn, Savage, Gladiator, min Unit of Venators, min Ferox, Agonizer and a soul ward and then pad from there. I think a white and red colour scheme should look unique and hopefully sell well. Doing snow bases is always impressive and I'm pretty sure I can pull this all off and paint better then 90% of the "Pro painted" stuff on Ebay. The question is how do you value a Hordes army? Warhammer is pretty easy to value as you have a lot of references but none for Hordes. I think I may just put it up at retail -10% and free postage and let people bidding decide the value on the models.

Any way I have to go play in the snow and start Hard mode in Bayonetta. Forcing angels to orgasm here I come!

P.S. I'm trying to set up more interviews, but doing something different than Gday did, as in have decent guests ;)

4 comments:

  1. I saw that, you malodorous git... :P

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  2. I will get you yet Penguin... JUST YOU WAIT.

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  3. Now when you spread this over even a battlebox game, the fury mechanic is not enjoyable to me. As a control freak who must consider everything giving me too many options doesn't make it harder (I can do it), but it makes it frustrating because I feel like an asshole because I'm spending so long thinking, but if I don't then I'd feel like an asshole for not playing my best.

    I like the way you think. At the end of the day, if you're finding yourself in a double-bind of frustration from playing a game, you probably should quit. I also like that you acknowledge it's that your nature and style of play isn't suited to HORDES rather than ranting about how HORDES is a rubbish game. Go you.

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